252 Fattening for Pork and Bacon. 



Weanlings are fattened for delicate pork 

 chiefly in the dairies, where they are made 

 ripe in a few weeks. Generally a pig of 

 five or six months old will be fattened in 

 seven, or eight, or twelve, weeks, depen- 

 dent on his condition. Small bacon hogs 

 will be fattened in twelve weeks, the larger 

 in sixteen to twenty. They should be kept 

 perfectly clean, dry, and comfortable, for 

 which daily attendance is necessary ; and 

 it is preferable, where time can be spared, 

 to feed thrice in the day. The most correct 

 feeders, and those largely concerned, en- 

 deavour so to apportion the meal, that the 

 trough may be entirely cleared, and yet 

 the appetite of the animal thoroughly satis- 

 fied ; a plan which has been proved in a 

 thousand examples to fatten, the most 

 speedily, and make the fattest hogs: so 

 totally opposite, nevertheless, to the an- 

 cient and still common country method of 

 filling the troughs at every feeding hour, 

 whether empty or not. I have witnessed 

 an old farmer repeatedly urging his servant 

 to the performance of this duty, whilst ths 



